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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Pear & Salted Carmel Cake & A Baker's Dream Giveaway!

Have you ever opened a cookbook and instantly fell in love with the exquisite photos and delicious recipes? This is exactly what happened to me with Hillary Davis' cookbook, French Desserts.

I've never been to France but simply browsing through this cookbook made me realize how much I would love the desserts in France. Recipes like the Pear & Salted Carmel Cake (below), Lime Yogurt Cake, Butter Cake, and more fill the pages of this delightful cookbook.

But having a good cookbook is pointless without quality bakeware. I recently got to try the Anolon Advanced Bronze Bake-ware Set and loved it. The 5 piece set includes just about everything a home baker needs to create the delicious treats found in the French Desserts cookbook. What makes this set special are the wide rims fitted with silicone handle grips for easy use.

Delicious desserts also deserve to be sliced professionally. The gourmet cake knife from WÜSTHOF has a nice serrated edge for easy cutting and a wide blade for serving. It was a pleasure to be able to cut through the cake without having it crumble.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line the loaf pan with parchment paper cut so that it overhangs the short sides by 2 inches and another piece of parchment paper cut so that it overhangs the long sides by 2 inches. You will use these overhangs as a sling to lift the cake out of the pan after it is baked.

Using the mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and thick, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat to combine. Add the flour, salt, butter, and half-and-half; mix until combined.

Do not peel the pears. Simply cut them into very thin slices and stir them into the batter. It will look like it is all pears, and you will not see much batter once it is all mixed.

Scoop this mixture into the loaf pan, pat it down flat, and bake for 45-55 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Take the cake out of the oven, and increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F.

Heat the brown sugar, half-and half, butter, and salt in a saucepan until it comes to a boil then let it bubble away for 2 minutes.

Poke holes in the top of the cake with a fork or a skewer. Pour half of the hot carmel mixture over the cake and place the cake back into the oven to bake for another 12 minutes. Reserve the remaining sauce.

Remove the cake from the oven, cool for 5 minutes, then gently lift with the parchment paper and slip the cake onto a serving plate. Remove the parchment paper and cool to room temperature for 20 minutes.

To serve, use a serrated knife to gently cut the cake into 1-inch-thick slices and ladle a bit f warm caramel sauce over the top.

This post is organized by Virtual Potluck and sponsored by Anolon,
WÜSTHOF, Paula Deen, Microplane, Gibbs-Smith, and Nielsen-Massey, who
provided products to the participating bloggers as well as items for our
giveaway. As Always, all opinions are my own.

It's hard to select a favorite item in your giveaway, but I think the cookbook sounds awesome from your description. And I have to also say that this pear and salted caramel cake has to be made in my kitchen very, very soon! Thanks for the chance in your giveaway!